One of the most traditional of Rio's sports clubs, football rules the roost and not least because it was here in 1902 that the englishman Oscar Cox inaugurated the city's first football team, Fluminense FC. In 2013 the club are defending the national title they won in 2012 (and also in 2010), and the squad boasts some big names in the form of Deco, Fred and Thiago Neves, all of whom can be watched for free during midweek training sessions, when practice matches can turn as cheerfully rowdy or angry and vitriolic as recent results and the players' performances deserve.

The club offers other attractions within its beautiful, turn-of-the-last-century grandeur however, including four clay tennis courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, separate diving pool, basketball arena and volleyball courts. The main building houses a beautiful ballroom replete with stained-glass windows, the trophy room and a refurbished por kilo buffet restaurant for members and non-members alike.

Tickets to Fluminense's games can be bought from the near-invisible ticket 'office' hidden behind the red wall on the corner of Rua Pinheiro Machado and Rua Álvaro Chaves. The Maracanã will once again be the team's home ground in the second half of 2013, but with their temporary home at the Stadium Rio also closed, home matches are currently played a two-hour drive outside of Rio at the home of Volta Redonda FC (voltaco.com.br) or occasionally at the São Januário stadium.